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College Football Playoff: System details, committee members and why it won't end the controversy

First look at the new College Football Playoff Trophy

This Monday, July 14, 2014 photo shows the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy in Irving, Texas. A rising gold football-shaped trophy will be the prize for the national champion in the new College Football Playoff. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

A playoff is finally here and while some may think it's not big enough, it still marks the first-ever tournament to determine a champion at college football's highest level.

Here are the nuts and bolts of the system and what it means for college football:

The basics

The College Football Playoff (its official no-nonsense name) is a four-team tournament incorporating six major bowls that will alternate the rights to host semifinal games on or around New Year's Day.

This season, the Sugar and Rose bowls will host Jan. 1 semifinals. The Orange and Cotton bowls get the semifinals in 2015-16, and the Peach and Fiesta bowls get them in the 2016-17 season.

The semifinalists will be picked by a 13-member committee, which will seed them 1-4. They will match up the No. 1 team vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3. The top seed will be placed in a bowl closest to its fan base while not allowing the No. 4 seed to enjoy a home field advantage. The winners of the two semifinals will then square off for the national title.

The site of the championship game will be decided through a bid process, similar to the Super Bowl. This season's title tilt will be played in Arlington, Texas on Jan. 12.

Future sites include Glendale, Arizona for the 2015-16 season and Tampa, Florida for the 2016-17 season.

Where does everybody else go?

Aside from the four playoff qualifiers, 72 other college teams will play in 36 bowls. Including the playoffs, 76 of the 128 teams in the FBS will make the postseason.

Who's on the committee?

College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock speaks during the NCAA college Big 12 Conference football media days in Dallas, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo)

Current conference commissioners, coaches and media members were excluded from consideration for the committee.

Committee members who are paid by a school or maintain a professional relationship with that school are recused from participating in votes regarding that school.

How are the four playoff teams chosen?

The selection committee picks the playoff field based on a series of broad criteria: conference championships, strength of schedule, win-loss record and head-to-head results.

The committee will meet throughout the season and release weekly Top 25 rankings each Tuesday beginning Oct. 28. The protocol for voting on the College Football Playoff Top 25, however, is far different from the traditional pick-your-25-in-order vote (get a step-by-step breakdown here). The four playoff teams, picked through this process, will be announced on the Tuesday following the conference championship games.

There is no limit on how many teams from one conference can be invited to the playoffs and no conference champion will receive an automatic playoff spot. The committee alone will determine the best four teams.

Will this end the controversy that came with the BCS?

Not a chance.

With five major conferences (the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC) and only four playoff spots, at least one power conference champion won't participate, which will make the process feel, if not as incomplete as the BCS, then maybe close.

Instead, both Alabama and Auburn would have made it out of the SEC, along with Florida State and Oregon.

When that happens in the future, it won't be analogous to other postseason snubs like, say, the NCAA basketball tournament. The first team left out of that tournament is the 37th team in line, aside from the 32 conference champions that qualify automatically.

In this case, the selection committee will always leave out at least one major conference champion, even in years when it doesn't pick two teams from one conference.

That means controversy is inevitable, and because of that many think we'll eventually move to eight teams, which would allow for all major conference champions to get in, plus a few at-large berths (including one possibly for a mid-major champion).